Page 152 of The Moon Sister
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The following morning, the ship made fast to the dock in Buenos Aires. Thecuadrowere on deck, all dressed up for the occasion in their best outfits, their hair slicked down with oil.
‘Even if there is no one here to greet us, we will act like we expected there to be,’ Lucía whispered to Meñique as they watched the gangplank being lowered. Lucía stood on tiptoe to peer over the side of the ship at the throng of people on the quayside.
‘They look and sound like us!’ she exclaimed happily.
‘Lucía! La Candela!’ someone shouted from below them.
‘Did someone just call my name?’ Lucía turned to Meñique in surprise and delight. She turned back and waved. ‘I am here!’ she screamed, the sound of gulls acting as her impromptu chorus.
The Albaycíncuadromade their way down the gangplank, their cardboard suitcases adorned with bundles of herbs tied on with scarves to ward off bad luck.
‘¡Hola, Buenos Aires!’ Lucía called out in triumph as she stepped onto Argentinian soil for the first time. ‘I did not die!’ She hugged the rest of her clan. A barrage of flashbulbs went off in their faces as a tall man in a silk suit walked towards them.
‘Where is Lucía Albaycín?’ he asked.
‘I am here.’ Lucía pushed her way through the crowd.
‘It is you?’ The man looked down at the tiny wisp of a woman whose head did not even reach up to his shoulder.
‘Sí, and who are you?’
‘I am Santiago Rodríguez, the impresario who brought you here, señorita.’
‘Bueno, you pay and we will dance for Buenos Aires!’
A cheer came up from the onlookers.
‘How does it feel to be on Argentinian soil?’
‘Wonderful! My father, my brother, my mother, even my handbag were sick on the seas!’ she said with a smile. ‘But we are here now, and safe.’
The flashbulbs went off yet again as Señor Rodríguez encircled Lucía’s tiny form and another loud cheer split the air.
‘And so,’ muttered Meñique, ‘a new circus begins . . .’
Tiggy
Sacromonte, Granada, Spain
February 2008
Eurasian brown bear
(Ursus arctos arctos)
27
‘Now I am sleepy,’ Angelina announced, bringing me back from the past. ‘No more until after I have rested.’
I looked at Angelina and saw her eyes were closed. She’d been talking for a good hour and a half.
What I wanted to do was to run back to my hotel, grab some paper and a pen and write down everything Angelina had told me so I didn’t forget a word of it. Most children had the luxury of their past being attached to their present and their future: they’d been brought up in an environment that they accepted and understood. For me, it felt as though I was having a crash-course in my heritage, which could not be more different from the life I’d led since I’d been taken from here by Pa. Somehow, I had to glue the two Tiggys together into a whole, and I knew that would take some time. Firstly, I just needed to settle into being this newpresentTiggy I was discovering.
‘Time for lunch.’ Pepe stood and began to walk towards the entrance to the cave.
‘May I help you?’ I asked, following him inside and finding myself in an old-fashioned kitchen.
